Teaching Students about Family Diversity

What Is a Family is a lesson plan developed by SOGI 123 Education (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Education), and is based on a guidebook from the Gender Spectrum: What Educators Need to Know to help kindergarten and grade 1 students learn about the diversity and similarities of families within their own class and in society. The overarching theme of the lesson is that families can have many different structures, including blended families, inter-racial families, adoptive parents, opposite gender parents, same gender parents, single parents, etc., and that all families are special and all need to be accepted and respected. Students share the make-up of their own families within the class and talk about the similarities and differences of their families with classmates. Students also explore picture books about diverse families that may be similar or different from their own. The lesson plan, as well as a book list, assessment tools, and preparation information, is available on the website.